Parenting is...

I recently read (OK, listened to the audio book) The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.  I'm not a fan of politics in general and (shame on me) don't follow all that closely.  I figured it would be interesting to read a book by the President and gave it a shot.  He gives quite an interested perspective on things and discusses topics from government to economy to family.  I probably couldn't go into too much detail on any of these topics, I guess they really didn't 'sink in'.  There was something at the end of the book, when he was discussing family, that stuck out and I adore it.  He began discussing his daughter's fifth birthday party -

"...the gymnastics instructor gathered all the kids around an old, multicolored parachute and told Sasha to sit at its center.  On the count of three, Sasha was hoisted up into the air and back down again, then up for a second time, and then for a third.  And each time she rose above the billowing sail, she laughed and laughed with a look of pure joy. 

"I wonder if Sasha will remember that moment when she is grown.  Probably not; it seems as if I can retrieve only the barest fragments of memory from when I was five.  But I suspect that the happiness she felt on that parachute registers permanently in her; that such moments accumulate and embed themselves in a child's character, becoming a part of their soul.  "

I guess I had always believed this, but I love the way he put it - "...such moments accumulate and embed themselves in a child's character, becoming a part of their soul."  As a new parent, it's a wonderful idea and a huge responsibility to think of it this way.  To think that every smile and laugh I help to create with my own son is being embedded in his soul.  And the same might be true for any unhappiness or tears that I help create.  What an amazing responsibility to have....